G-23 leaders meet in Delhi as Congress president poll race heats up

New Delhi, Sep 28: As the Congress president's election race heats up, some G-23 leaders, including Prithviraj Chavan, Bhupinder Hooda and Manish Tewari, met at the residence of Anand Sharma and are learnt to have discussed the current situation.

Sources said that Tewari was keen to file his nomination papers for the election but there was no confirmation on the same.

Shashi Tharoor, who was part of the G-23, will be filing his nomination papers for the top party post on Friday.

Tewari later told reporters that no one has filed the nominations yet and things will be clear only after tomorrow. He said they sat for deliberations and discussed the situation.

Chavan also said that it was good that internal polls were being held in a democratic manner and stated that they had earlier thanked Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for the free and fair elections.

"Let us see who files the nominations and we will support the best candidate in the fray," he said after the meeting.

The G-23 grouping had written to Sonia Gandhi seeking organisational overhaul and internal polls at all levels.

Digvijaya Singh entered the fray for the Congress president's election as Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot opted out of the race. Singh said he would file his nomination on Friday.

Reports suggest said Mallikarjun Kharge is being considered as a frontrunner for the post and will be meeting Gandhi on Friday morning. The names of Mukul Wasnik and Kumari Selja are also doing the rounds.

Gehlot met Gandhi and also took moral responsibility for what is being seen as a rebellion by MLAs loyal to him in Rajasthan.

Gehlot's rival Sachin Pilot visited the Congress president's residence late evening and held discussions.

The Congress also issued an advisory warning of strict disciplinary action against leaders making public statements on internal matters of the party and against other party functionaries.